Owners Roger Penske, Michael Andretti have a long day at Indianapolis 500: Indy 500 notebook

Darron Cummings / Associated PressShaker Heights native Roger Penske, whose team usually dominates at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, didn't see much to smile about this month at Indianapolis. This picture was taken earlier in May during a practice session at Indy.

Indianapolis -- Forgive the likes of the powerful Chip Ganassi, Roger Penske and Michael Andretti race teams for the red in their eyes. None had a car in the top three of the centennial running of the Indianapolis 500. They came to Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a combined 10 cars that first showed potential cracks when only eight of them originally made the field.

Also, only one of them, Ganassi, had a car on the front row. It looked as though Ganassi would hold the honor for the Big Three, leading 115 of the first 164 laps. But over the final 36 laps of the day, they only led nine -- and none of the final 21. In the end, only three cars from those teams finished in the top 10, only one in the top five. None was a Penske.

While some might be inclined to rub it in, second-place finisher JR Hildebrand correctly acknowledged this was as much a product of years of "spec racing," where everyone drives the same thing, as anything else.

"We've gotten to the point that you can kind of rub [the cars] and make changes all day. But they are effectively kind of the similar formula that we've been running for quite some time here."

That will all change next season with new engines and chassis as the series moves to a new generation of cars. The last time Penske made the race and did not have a car finish in the top 10 was 1992.

Pole to bust:Alex Tagliani was the speed racer all month, and even through the first half of the race. But in the end, his car could not live up to its early billing as Tagliani ultimately finished 28th after making contact with 53 laps to go.

"We had a really good, balanced car early on," Tagliani said. "Then all of a sudden, it became very loose. So we were struggling with a very nervous car. In one of our pit stops, we thought we had fixed it, but we didn't."

Rahal I: Lost in all the final laps of drama was the performance delivered, once again, by former Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal in bringing and developing a young driver at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Like several others, Bertrand Baguette was racing at the end with a chance to win Indy in only his second appearance at the speedway.

As a team owner, Rahal won Indy with a young Buddy Rice and guided the young career of Danica Patrick, among several others.

"Bertrand did a great job today and really showed that he deserves a full-time ride in the series," Rahal said. "We saw all week that Bertrand could really handle the car, he was smooth, he didn't get rattled and showed everything that you want to see in a driver. It felt a lot like when we had Vitor [Meira], Buddy, Danica and Ryan [Hunter-Reay] here. It is very rewarding for me to see a youngster like that do well with our team, and I hope that we can work with him again soon."

Rahal II: Bobby's son, Graham, finished an impressive third at Indy, and along with veteran Tony Kanaan was one of several drivers who charged through the field several times to make an impressive run at the end.

"If [the race] were two laps longer, I'd probably be drinking milk right now," Graham Rahal said after the race. "Someone just told me we passed 67 cars today and didn't win. I mean, I passed Hildebrand probably four times today, and I passed [Dan] Wheldon once. We knew we had probably one of the best cars out there."

Double trouble: There was a slight amendment to the double-file restarts, a first at Indy, that the drivers were in angst about heading into the race.

The safety car would pull off in turn one before the green flag instead of turn four, but the leader was required to maintain a pace lap into the fourth turn with all cars maintaining position behind him, until the green flag dropped. After the green flag, traditionally when the lead driver cleared the fourth turn, passing could begin.

But after the race, at least one driver was still adamantly against the double-file restarts.

"I'm going to be frank about that and say they're trying to kill somebody," Marco Andretti said. "I'm glad it's great for the fans, but the risk where we're at is just ridiculous. It's a lottery."

Centennial field: For those taking note of the drivers in the centennial field, the numbers are as follows: 11 Americans, five from England, four from Brazil, three from Canada, two from Australia and one each from New Zealand, Spain, Scotland, Japan, Venezuela, Belgium, South Africa and Switzerland.

Did you know? Wheldon finished second in 2009, second in 2010 and first in 2011, but led only 1,000 feet in the three races.

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